The Bethmann family (; ) has been remarkable for the high proportion of its male members who succeeded at mercantile or financial endeavors. This family trait began in medieval northern Germany and continued with the
Bethmann bank, which
Johann Philipp Bethmann
Johann Philipp Bethmann (30 November 1715 in Nassau, northwest of Frankfurt am Main – 27 November 1793 in Frankfurt am Main) was a German merchant and banker.
Life
Bethmann was the oldest son of the Nassovian administrator ''Simon Moritz Be ...
(1715–1793) and
Simon Moritz Bethmann (1721–1782) founded in 1748 and soon catapulted into the foremost ranks of German and European banks. Even after the bank's sale in 1976, there are Bethmanns engaged in commercial real estate and forestry in the 21st century.
The most notable of the Bethmanns was
Simon Moritz von Bethmann (1768–1826), a banker, diplomat, politician, philanthropist and patron of the arts. His sister Maria Elisabeth was the mother of
Marie d'Agoult
Marie Cathérine Sophie, Comtesse d'Agoult (née de Flavigny; 31 December 18055 March 1876), was a Franco-German romantic author and historian, known also by her pen name, Daniel Stern.
Life
Marie was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, with th ...
and the grandmother of
Cosima Wagner
Francesca Gaetana Cosima Wagner ( née Liszt; 24 December 1837 – 1 April 1930) was the daughter of the Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt and Franco-German romantic author Marie d'Agoult. She became the second wife of the German co ...
; his sister Susanne Elisabeth was the great-grandmother of
Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg
Theobald Theodor Friedrich Alfred von Bethmann Hollweg (29 November 1856 – 1 January 1921) was a German politician who was the chancellor of the German Empire from 1909 to 1917. He oversaw the German entry into World War I. According to biog ...
.
Beginnings in Goslar
The Bethmann family, which produced the famous
Bethmann banking dynasty, resided in
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
from the early 18th century onward.
[''Herders Conversations-Lexikon''](_blank)
p. 517, volume 1 Earlier ancestors had come from the northern German town of
Goslar
Goslar (; Eastphalian: ''Goslär'') is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Goslar and located on the northwestern slopes of the Harz mountain range. The Old Town of Goslar and the Mines ...
.
[''Brockhaus' Konversationslexikon''](_blank)
p. 899.[Helbing, p. 27.][Johann Philipp Freiherr von Bethmann, in Sarkowicz, p. 58.] There – as
burghers but not feudal nobility – the Bethmanns were among the upper crust of urban families. As such, they were entitled to delegate representatives to the town council and to bear a coat of arms; the earliest mention of the Bethmann name in
Hanseatic
The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=German language, Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Norther ...
Goslar – in the ''registrum parochianorum'', a compendium on wax tablets of the town's parishioners
– dates back to a ''Heinrich Bethmann'' in 1416.
[Klötzer 1994, p. 62.] The surname "Bethmann" likely was an occupational name (like "Bäcker"/"Baker") given to collectors of the , a tax requested () from freemen in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
.
Subsequently, other Bethmanns – a ''Tile'', a ''Bartold'', a ''Hans'' and an ''Albrecht'' – appear in the records of Goslar, as owners of houses on Stonestrate and Korngasse, and as witnesses in the sale of houses.
Another ''Tile'' buys a house on Knochenhauerstraße in 1492, serves on the town council, and is mentioned ten times between 1503 and 1520 as ''Munteherr'', the title of an official responsible for minting of
specie
Specie may refer to:
* Coins or other metal money in mass circulation
* Bullion coins
* Hard money (policy)
* Commodity money
* Specie Circular, 1836 executive order by US President Andrew Jackson regarding hard money
* Specie Payment Resumption Ac ...
and weighing the metals produced from mining.
In 1512, Henning Bethmann, the great-great-grandfather of
Konrad Bethmann, is accepted into the merchants' guild.
In 1515, he is appointed ''Tafelherr'', i.e. the councillor responsible for the town finances; this is followed by appointments to the posts of ''Munteherr'' in 1528, ''Kistenherr'' in 1538, and in 1548 supervisor of the vitriol works that extracted
copper vitriol from ore.
A Bartoldt Bethmann sold a house on Piepmäkerstraße in 1548 and another on Glockengießerstraße in 1566.
Henning's grandson Hieronymus is recorded in 1590 as a member of the merchants' guild; four years later, he married Ilsebey Drönewolf in St. Stephan's church.
[Helbing, p. 28.] Hieronymus served as chairman of the merchants' guild, as ''Kornherr'' responsible for grain stocks, town councillor, member of the ''Sechsmann'' inner council and finally of the ''Neuer'' or governing council.
Hieronymus died as the Swedes were entering Goslar.
The town never fully recovered from the ransacking and pillaging of the Thirty Years' War, especially the three years of Swedish occupation.
Some of the 19th century literature incorrectly claimed that the family had originated in the Netherlands. The family assigned its archives in 1965 to the city of
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
. The Bethmanns' archival materials occupy some 300 meters of shelf space, and the oldest document therein is a calligraphed agreement dated 29 May 1321, regulating traffic on the street between the Basler Hof property, which the Bethmanns purchased in 1762, and a neighboring house.
[''Institut für Stadtgeschichte''](_blank)
Bankhaus Gebrüder Bethmann, (W1/9)
Coat of arms
The Bethmann family's
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
can be traced to 1530.
On the
dexter
Dexter may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Dexter, the main character of the American animated series ''Dexter's Laboratory'' that aired from 1996 to 2003
* Dexter, a fictional character in the British Diary of a Bad Man#Main, web series ''Diar ...
side of a split shield, half an eagle in black is displayed against a golden background, while the
sinister
Sinister commonly refers to:
* Evil
* Ominous
Sinister may also refer to:
Left side
* Sinister, Latin for the direction " left"
* Sinister, in heraldry, is the bearer's true left side (viewers' right side) of an escutcheon or coat of arms; see ...
side displays two diagonal red bars against a silver background.
[''Neues deutsches Adels-Lexicon''](_blank)
p. 388. At a later date, the motto ''tuebor'' (
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
for "I shall protect") was added.
To Nassau and Aschaffenburg
Konrad Bethmann (sometimes spelled "Conrad") (1652–1701) was born in Goslar as the seventh child of the merchant ''Andreas Bethmann'', four years after the
Peace of Westphalia
The Peace of Westphalia (german: Westfälischer Friede, ) is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and brought pea ...
ended the
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...
.
[Helbing, p. 26.] Much of Germany then was a patchwork of small to medium-sized jurisdictions. While this factor impeded development towards a nation-state, it ensured plentiful job opportunities for ambitious bureaucrats and entrepreneurs.
Konrad left his hometown for an apprenticeship in
Eisleben
Eisleben is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is famous as both the hometown of the influential theologian Martin Luther and the place where he died; hence, its official name is Lutherstadt Eisleben. First mentioned in the late 10th century, E ...
.
[ He served as ]Münzwardein
In medieval and Renaissance Germany, the Münzwardein ("assayer", lit. "mint-warden") was the title of an official whose duties included supervising the Münzmeister and the stock of precious metals used in mint (coin), minting. He was responsible ...
in Dömitz
Dömitz () is a municipality in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Elbe, 25 km southwest of Ludwigslust, and 37 km northwest of Wittenberge.
It was grant ...
(Mecklenburg), then was appointed in 1683 Münzmeister
In medieval and early modern Germany, the ''Münzmeister'' ("mint master", the Latin term is ''monetarius'') was the head or manager of a mint, a moneyer with responsibility for the minting of coins, or specie. His duties were defined differently a ...
to the Princess of Nassau-Holzappel in Cramberg
Cramberg is a municipality in the Nassau Nature Park in the district of Rhein-Lahn, in Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany. It belongs to the association community of Diez.
Geography
Cramberg is situated at the foothills of the Taunus i ...
on the Lahn
The Lahn is a , right (or eastern) tributary of the Rhine in Germany. Its course passes through the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (23.0 km), Hesse (165.6 km), and Rhineland-Palatinate (57.0 km).
It has its source in t ...
river, followed by his appointment in 1687 as ''Münzmeister'' (Master of the Mint) to the Teutonic Knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...
in Friedberg, and in 1692 as ''Münzmeister'' for the Archbishopric and Electorate of Mainz in Aschaffenburg
Aschaffenburg (; South Franconian: ''Aschebersch'') is a town in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg is not part of the district of Aschaffenburg, but is its administrative seat.
Aschaffenburg belonged to the Archbishopric ...
.
He bequeathed a substantial fortune to his widow, Anna Elisabeth (1654–1727), whom he had married in 1678. She was a native of the northern German town of Minden
Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the greatest town between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district (''Kreis'') of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of Detm ...
, where the church of St Simeon, Protestant since 1529, and the Roman Catholic monastery of St Maurice stand side by side to this day. This may explain why in subsequent generations, there was always one son named "Simon Moritz".
As a Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
, the widowed Anna Elisabeth and her children quitted the Archbishopric for the Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
city of Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
; there she found it easier to comply with her religious obligations and benefited from the presence of relatives. Three of her daughters married citizens of Frankfurt. Her son Simon Moritz Bethmann (1687–1725) served the House of Nassau-Weilburg
The House of Nassau-Weilburg, a branch of the House of Nassau, ruled a division of the County of Nassau, which was a state in what is now Germany, then part of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1344 to 1806.
On 17 July 1806, upon the dissolution of t ...
as an ''Amtmann
__NOTOC__
The ''Amtmann'' or ''Ammann'' (in Switzerland) was an official in German-speaking countries of Europe and in some of the Nordic countries from the time of the Middle Ages whose office was akin to that of a bailiff. He was the most seni ...
'' or bailiff-magistrate, in Bergnassau on the river Lahn
The Lahn is a , right (or eastern) tributary of the Rhine in Germany. Its course passes through the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (23.0 km), Hesse (165.6 km), and Rhineland-Palatinate (57.0 km).
It has its source in t ...
.
This Simon Moritz Bethmann had three sons:
# Johann Philipp Bethmann
Johann Philipp Bethmann (30 November 1715 in Nassau, northwest of Frankfurt am Main – 27 November 1793 in Frankfurt am Main) was a German merchant and banker.
Life
Bethmann was the oldest son of the Nassovian administrator ''Simon Moritz Be ...
(1715–1793),
# Johann Jakob Bethmann (1717–1792) and
# Simon Moritz Bethmann (1721–1782).
Founding of the bank
Upon the death of Simon Moritz Bethmann in 1725, his widow Elisabeth Bethmann, formerly Thielen (1680–1757), returned to Frankfurt, where she became housekeeper in the household of her brother-in-law, the merchant Jakob Adami (1670–1745). In his will, he bequeathed to his nephews half of his fortune. Johann Philipp and Simon Moritz took control of the ''Jacob Adami'' trading enterprise, out of which in 1748 the banking enterprise of ''Gebrüder Bethmann'' developed. This eventually became the House of Bethmann.[''Allgemeine deutsche Biographie''](_blank)
vol. 2, pp. 574–576. Johann Jakob – the middle brother – established a trading branch in Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
. Later he became the imperial
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imperial, Nebraska
* Imperial, Pennsylvania
* Imperial, Texa ...
consul in Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
and founded the Bordeaux branch of the family, which continues to this day.[Klötzer 1994, p. 63.]
Within a short span of time, the Bethmann bank developed into one of Frankfurt's leading Christian-owned banks, on a scale comparable only to its younger rival, the House of Rothschild
The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court factor to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel in the Free City of F ...
. The bank's fortunes began to rise in 1754 based on its business in imperial
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imperial, Nebraska
* Imperial, Pennsylvania
* Imperial, Texa ...
, princely
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...
and municipal bonds and skyrocketed from 1778, thanks to the bank's innovation in breaking the amount borrowed by the Austrian emperor down into "sub-bonds" (''Partialobligationen'') at 1000 guldens each offered to the public, which made them tradeable in secondary markets. This transformed the bank from a lender to an underwriter of bond issues. At one point, the profits of ''Gebrüder Bethmann'' exceeded those of all its Frankfurt competitors put together, and it ranked first among all German banks.
Simon Moritz, a major donor to Frankfurt's ''Citizens' Hospital'', died without issue, but the marriage in 1762 between his elder brother Johann Philipp and Katharina Margarethe Schaaf (1741–1822), daughter of the Frankfurt notable Anton Schaaf, produced six children, four of whom survived to adulthood:
# Susanne Elisabeth (1763–1833) was married in 1780 to the Frankfurt merchant Johann Jakob Hollweg (1748–1808), who changed his name to ''Bethmann-Hollweg'' upon marriage. Her son Moritz August would become a Prussian minister of state, and his grandson in turn was Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg
Theobald Theodor Friedrich Alfred von Bethmann Hollweg (29 November 1856 – 1 January 1921) was a German politician who was the chancellor of the German Empire from 1909 to 1917. He oversaw the German entry into World War I. According to biog ...
, who served as Imperial German Chancellor from 1909 to 1917.[Klötzer 1994, p. 66.]
# Simon Moritz (1768–1826) was among the most notable of Frankfurt's bankers, statesmen and philanthropists.
# Maria Elisabeth (1772–1847) was married in 1790 to the banker Johann Jakob Bußmann (1756–1791). Widowed only a year later, she remarried, this time to émigré French aristocrat ''Alexandre Victor Francois Vicomte de Flavigny'' (1770–1819). Her daughter from the second marriage was Marie d'Agoult
Marie Cathérine Sophie, Comtesse d'Agoult (née de Flavigny; 31 December 18055 March 1876), was a Franco-German romantic author and historian, known also by her pen name, Daniel Stern.
Life
Marie was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, with th ...
(1805–1876), who in turn gave birth to several children, among them—from her liaison to Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
–- Cosima Wagner
Francesca Gaetana Cosima Wagner ( née Liszt; 24 December 1837 – 1 April 1930) was the daughter of the Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt and Franco-German romantic author Marie d'Agoult. She became the second wife of the German co ...
(1837–1930).
# ''Sophie Elisabeth'' (1774–1862).
First families of Frankfurt
In Frankfurt, the beginnings of an independent polity date back to the grant of privileges to its citizens by Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich II Frederick II, Frederik II or Friedrich II may refer to:
* Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (1194–1250), King of Sicily from 1198; Holy Roman Emperor from 1220
* Frederick II of Denmark (1534–1588), king of Denmark and Norway 1559–1588
* Fr ...
in 1217.[Die Macht der Patrizier](_blank)
, ''Frankfurter Rundschau Online'' Not long after, an upper crust of burgher
Burgher may refer to:
* Burgher (social class), a medieval, early modern European title of a citizen of a town, and a social class from which city officials could be drawn
** Burgess (title), a resident of a burgh in northern Britain
** Grand Bu ...
families began to constitute itself. To them were reserved seats on the town council, which were passed on by inheritance to the sons of the council members. This clique of generally wealthy families was called Patricians
The patricians (from la, patricius, Greek: πατρίκιος) were originally a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. The distinction was highly significant in the Roman Kingdom, and the early Republic, but its relevance waned after ...
, after the ''patricii'' ruling families of ancient Rome. Some of these patrician families, like the Holzhausens, had an unbroken run of sixteen generations on the town council from the 13th to the 18th century. As the daughter of a Kaiserlicher Rat and Schöffe A lay judge, sometimes called a lay assessor, is a person assisting a judge in a trial. Lay judges are used in some civil law jurisdictions. Lay judges are appointed volunteers and often require some legal instruction. However, they are not perma ...
, Katharina Margarete Schaaf gained her husband Johann Philipp access to Patrician society; she was on familiar terms with the mother of Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...
and, even after she was widowed, maintained a respected salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon (P ...
where she received Madame de Staël Madame may refer to:
* Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French
* Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel
* ''Madame'' ...
in 1808.
By 1816, when Frankfurt's new constitution abolished the privilege of heritable office for the ''Patrizier'', the cachet of belonging to one of their societies had already become much less significant.
A man in full – pragmatic and enlightened
![Bethm001](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Bethm001.jpg)
Upon the death of Johann Philipp Bethmann in 1793, his son Simon Moritz became head of the House of Bethmann. His peers called him "Frankfurt's premier citizen", while in France some called him ''le roi de Francfort''. His financial dealings gained him entrance to nearly all the ruling families of Europe, and he exploited these contacts on numerous diplomatic missions on behalf of his hometown. In 1802 he negotiated successfully with France for a reduction of her demand for contributions to the cost of war. In the negotiations on the German mediatisation
German mediatisation (; german: deutsche Mediatisierung) was the major territorial restructuring that took place between 1802 and 1814 in Germany and the surrounding region by means of the mass mediatisation and secularisation of a large number ...
, he bargained for and achieved the secularization of ecclesiastical assets within the territory of Frankfurt for the benefit of the imperial city
In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that ...
. In 1802 he was appointed Russian consul for Frankfurt, followed by his appointment in 1807 as Russian Consul General and Staatsrat
The State Council of East Germany (German: ''Staatsrat der DDR'') was the collective head of state of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1960 to 1990.
Origins
When the German Democratic Republic was founded in October 1949, its ...
or Russian Counselor of State. In 1808 he received the patent of an Austrian nobleman from Francis I Francis I or Francis the First may refer to:
* Francesco I Gonzaga (1366–1407)
* Francis I, Duke of Brittany (1414–1450), reigned 1442–1450
* Francis I of France (1494–1547), King of France, reigned 1515–1547
* Francis I, Duke of Saxe-Lau ...
, Emperor of Austria. Thenceforth, he and his descendants would be named ''von'' Bethmann. However, to the people of Frankfurt his "Russian" title of ''Staatsrat'' stuck, and so even after he returned that commission to Tsar Alexander I
Alexander I (; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first King of Congress Poland from 1815, and the Grand Duke of Finland from 1809 to his death. He was the eldest son of Emperor Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg.
The son of G ...
he was simply known as the ''Staatsrat''. On 31 October 1813 the retreating Emperor Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
spent the night as an unannounced guest at the Bethmanns' garden house. Bethmann's negotiating skills managed to persuade the French to withdraw their army without further bloodshed from Frankfurt.
Besides promoting commerce, Simon Moritz von Bethmann was an ardent supporter of the arts and sciences in the city of Frankfurt. In 1812 Bethmann inaugurated a museum of antique and classicist sculpture within a stretch of land that he had turned into a park six years earlier. (Both the building and the park were sold to the city in 1856). His donations made it possible to establish the city library on the northern bank of the river Main between 1820 and 1825.
He was a major donor and co-founder of secondary schools (Musterschule
The Musterschule ("model school") is a Gymnasium (Germany), gymnasium in Frankfurt, Germany. It was founded on 18 April 1803 by Wilhelm Friedrich Hufnagel as a ''Realschule'' and is Frankfurt's second oldest higher school after the Lessing-Gymna ...
in 1803, Philanthropin
The Philanthropin (Greek for "place of humanity") is a Jewish elementary school and gymnasium in Frankfurt, Germany. It was founded in 1804 by Mayer Amschel Rothschild.
History
Formally, the school was established by Siegmund Geisenheimer, the c ...
in 1804, ''Weißfrauenschule'' in 1806); his efforts on behalf of the ''Philanthropin'' were particularly noteworthy, for in supporting this Jewish school and promoting its cause among his Christian brethren, Simon Moritz was ahead of his time. In 1687 when ''Anna Elisabeth Bethmann'' named a son ''Simon Moritz'', it may have been that she wanted to show her support for ecumenicism or it may simply have been that she fondly remembered the twin landmarks of her hometown. For her great-grandson—the third Simon Moritz—there was nothing accidental about what he set out to do: support the Jews in their struggle for civil rights.
In this respect, Simon Moritz was not unique. A generation earlier, Enlightenment figures like Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (, ; 22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the developmen ...
had begun militating for Jewish emancipation. Unusually, however, at the same time that Simon Moritz was helping the Jews of Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
to secure greater freedoms for themselves, he was carrying on a fierce business rivalry with the Rothschilds in which no quarter was ever given.
On Christmas Day 1826, he suffered a stroke in a box seat of Frankfurt's municipal theater, an institution which he had co-endowed, and succumbed two days afterward.[Klötzer 1964, p. 64.] Bethmann was buried in the cemetery of the Church of Peter in Frankfurt, where his grave is preserved to this day.
Simon Moritz von Bethmann had married Louise Friederike ''née'' Boode (1792–1869), daughter of a respected Dutch family, granddaughter of a Huguenot named Martin[Helbing, p. 125.] and a native of British Guiana
British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana.
The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...
, in 1810. The Louisa park off a major carriage route in the southwest part of Frankfurt is named after ''Louise von Bethmann''.
Four sons issued from this marriage:
# Philipp Heinrich ''Moritz'' Alexander von Bethmann (1811–1877)
# ''Carl Ludwig Caesar von Bethmann'' (1812–1871)
# ''Alexander von Bethmann'' (1814–1883)
# ''Jacob Heinrich Friedrich von Bethmann'' (d. 1845 without issue)
Because Bethmann's sons had not yet achieved the age of majority upon their father's death, the bank's partners stepped in as ''pro tem'' directors of the bank. In 182,8 his widow remarried to Matthias Franz Joseph Borgnis (1798–1867).
Magnates of industrial revolution
![Frankfurter Fürstentag 1863 Abschlußphoto](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Frankfurter_F%C3%BCrstentag_1863_Abschlu%C3%9Fphoto.jpg)
In 1833, Moritz von Bethmann succeeded to the directorship of the bank. He financed the construction of numerous railways in Germany and made especially sure that Frankfurt turned into an early node of rail traffic. Together with the House of Rothschild
The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court factor to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel in the Free City of F ...
, Moritz started the Taunus-Eisenbahn AG in 1836, the Frankfurt-Hanau railroad in 1844, and the Rheingau railroad in 1845, to name just a selection. Investments were made during the 1850s in other European railroads – such as the Italian Central Railroad, the Austrian state railroad, and the Rhine/Nahe railroad established in 1856. In 1842 he became a Prussian consul, then Prussian Consul General in the Free City of Frankfurt
For almost five centuries, the German city of Frankfurt was a city-state within two major Germanic entities:
*The Holy Roman Empire as the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt () (until 1806)
*The German Confederation as the Free City of Frankfurt ...
from 1854 to 1866. He was granted the heritable title of Freiherr
(; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire ...
, a rank of minor nobility, in the Grand Duchy of Baden
The Grand Duchy of Baden (german: Großherzogtum Baden) was a state in the southwest German Empire on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918.
It came into existence in the 12th century as the Margraviate of Baden and subs ...
in 1854. Also in 1854 he co-founded the ''Frankfurter Bank'', in 1862 the Frankfurter Hypothekenbank, and in 1873 the Degussa
Evonik Industries AG is a stock-listed German specialty chemicals company headquartered in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the second largest chemicals company in Germany, and one of the largest specialty chemicals companies in the ...
company.[Klötzer 1994, p. 65.]
In 1863, he hosted the German princes convening to discuss constitutional reform in his garden mansion. Following in the footsteps of his father, he too was a generous patron of the arts in Frankfurt and contributed heavily to philanthropic causes, arts and letters, and organized equestrian activities. On 18 September 1848, he gave refuge to mortally wounded Prince Felix Lichnowsky who had been attacked by a mob ostensibly outraged over foreign policy decisions. He was married to Marie von Bose.[Helbing, p. 124.]
Moritz' brother Carl Ludwig Caesar von Bethmann purchased the castle of Fechenbach in 1842, earning him the title of a Bavarian Freiherr
(; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , literally "free lord" or "free lady") and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire ...
. His oldest son Karl Moritz "Charly" von Bethmann proved a spendthrift and got himself in hock to a loan shark charging 6 per cent interest a week. Karl Moritz was hoping for a rescue from the House of Bethmann, but Moritz von Bethmann was unfazed: he said that total ruination was the best cure for his profligate nephew Charly.[Private historical website]
/ref>
The last male descendant of this line, Karl Alexander Moritz Freiherr von Bethmann, died in 1942. Fechenbach castle was sold to a private buyer named Wissler but confiscated by the Nazis a year later. Following the end of WWII and after a decade as an orphanage, the property was restituted to the Wissler family, who completed its construction in 2006.[
]
Ludwig ''Simon Moritz'' Freiherr von Bethmann (1844–1902), the eldest son of Moritz von Bethmann and Marie von Bose, married Baroness Helene von Wendland.[ Trained in London, he joined ''Gebrüder Bethmann'' as partner in 1869. He gained broad experience in several industries, serving as non-executive director on the boards of rail and banking companies. This ''Simon Moritz'' kept up the railroad business but also got the bank involved in municipal bonds and industrial investments worldwide. A passionate huntsman and athlete, he became a wheelchair user following a riding accident in 1879. He gave generously to local and charitable causes, sponsoring the Golden Book of Frankfurt am Main in 1902. Of their three children, only Simon Moritz survived. After serving as First Lieutenant in World War I, he set out to transform the Bethmann bank into a full-service bank.]
Simon Moritz Henning August Freiherr von Bethmann (1887–1966): following studies of the law in Lausanne and Leipzig, he joined Gebrüder Bethmann as partner in 1913. In 1914, he married Maximiliane Countess Schimmelpenninck,[ a granddaughter of Dr. Eugen Lucius, a founder of ]Hoechst AG
Hoechst AG () was a German chemicals then life-sciences company that became Aventis Deutschland after its merger with France's Rhône-Poulenc S.A. in 1999. With the new company's 2004 merger with Sanofi-Synthélabo, it became a subsidiary of the ...
, thus adding the landed estate with Castle Schönstadt near Marburg
Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...
to the Bethmann holdings. He joined the board of the stock exchange
A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for th ...
and became its president in 1933.
This Simon Moritz contributed his time to numerous cultural institutions of Frankfurt, such as the administration of the Städel museum
The Städel, officially the ''Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie'', is an art museum in Frankfurt, with one of the most important collections in Germany. The Städel Museum owns 3,100 paintings, 660 sculptures, more than 4,600 ...
, as well as non-profit foundations. He co-founded the first Rotary Club
Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. Its stated mission is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through hefellowship of business, profe ...
in Frankfurt and accepted an appointment as Swedish Consul General. In 1929, he served as chairman of the supervisory board of Frankfurter Bank. When World War II ended, he was a lieutenant colonel (reserve).
Gadfly author and last of the bankers
* (1924–2007)
*
''Zu wenig studiert: Privatbankier von Bethmann empfiehlt der Bundesbank ein unorthodoxes Rezept gegen die Inflation: Die Zinsen müssen runter.''
*Albrecht Freiherr von Bethmann (born 1956) – commercial real estate
renovation of commercial building in Frankfurt
*Christian Freiherr von Bethmann (born 1958) – forestry owner and consultant,Transcript
of radio feature and commercial real estate
Eponymous sites, ''Bethmännchen''
In Frankfurt, the Bethmann family name is honored in ''Bethmannstraße'', a short street in Frankfurt's old part of town; the Bethmann park in Frankfurt's Nordend
Nordend (meaning ''north end'' in German) is a northern peak of the Monte Rosa Massif. Nordend is the fourth highest peak of the massif, after the Dufourspitze (4,634 m), the Dunantspitze (4,632 m) and the Grenzgipfel (4,618 m). See also
*List o ...
district; and the ''Bethmannschule'', a vocational school for office careers. A statue of Simon Moritz von Bethmann by sculptor Eduard Schmidt von der Launitz was erected on the centenary of his birth in the Friedberger Anlage, a landscaped portion of the razed city ramparts.
According to a popular story, the ''Bethmännchen
''Bethmännchen'' (German for "a little Bethmann") is a pastry made from marzipan with almond, powdered sugar, rosewater, flour and egg. It is a traditional cookie usually baked for Christmas Day and is widely available in chocolate shops around ...
'', a marzipan
Marzipan is a confectionery, confection consisting primarily of sugar, honey, and almond meal (ground almonds), sometimes augmented with almond oil or extract.
It is often made into Confectionery, sweets; common uses are chocolate-covered marzi ...
confection
Confectionery is the art of making confections, which are food items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confectionery is divided into two broad and somewhat overlapping categories ...
, was created in 1838 by the Paris pastry chef Jean Jacques Gautenier, then the head ''cuisinier'' in the Bethmann household. The four almond halves stuck onto the ''Bethmännchen'' were said to represent each one of the four sons, with one of the four almond pieces left off following the death of Heinrich in 1845.
Notes
Bibliography
* ''Herders Conversations-Lexikon'', vol. 1. Freiburg im Breisgau 1854
* ''Neues deutsches Adels-Lexicon'', Ernst Heinrich Kneschke (ed.), vol. 1. Leipzig 1859
* ''Allgemeine deutsche Biographie'', vol. 2, Leipzig 1875
* ''Die Grenzboten: Zeitschrift für Politik, Literatur und Kunst'', F. L. Herbig (publisher), 1878
* ''Brockhaus' Konversationslexikon'', Leipzig, Berlin and Vienna, 14th edition 1894–1896
* Paul Joseph, Eduard Fellner: ''Die Münzen von Frankfurt am Main nebst einer münzgeschichtlichen Einleitung und mehreren Anhängen'', 1896
* ''Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon'', vol. 2, Leipzig 1905
* Claus Helbing: ''Die Bethmanns. Aus der Geschichte eines alten Handelshauses zu Frankfurt am Main''. Gericke, Wiesbaden 1948.
* Alexander Dietz: ''Frankfurter Handelsgeschichte'', Glashütten 1971, reprint of 1925 edition
* Fritz Stern: ''Gold and Iron''. Vintage, 1979,
* Wolfgang Klötzer: ''Das Familienarchiv der Bethmanns'', in: ''Wahrlich eine schöne Stadt. Kleine Schriften zur Frankfurter Kulturgeschichte'', Verlag Waldemar Kramer (publishers), Frankfurt am Main, 1985,
* Erich Pfeiffer-Belli: ''Junge Jahre im alten Frankfurt'', Wiesbaden and Munich, 1986,
* Wolfgang Klötzer (ed.): ''Frankfurter Biographie. Erster Band A-L''. Verlag Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1994,
* Hans Sarkowicz (ed.): ''Die großen Frankfurter'', Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig, 1994,
* Ralf Roth: ''Stadt und Bürgertum in Frankfurt am Main'', doctoral thesis, University of Frankfurt am Main, 1996
* Christine Magin: ''Die Inschriften der Stadt Goslar'', L. Reichert (publishers), 1997,
* Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich: ''Frankfurt as a Financial Center: From Medieval Trade Fair to European Banking Centre'', Munich, 1999,
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* Niall Ferguson: ''The House of Rothschild. Volume 1, Money's Prophets: 1798–1848''. Penguin, 1999,
* Patrick Hanks
Patrick Hanks (born 24 March 1940) is an English lexicographer, corpus linguist, and onomastician. He has edited dictionaries of general language, as well as dictionaries of personal names.
Background
Hanks was educated at Ardingly College, ...
(ed.): ''Dictionary of American Family Names''. Oxford University Press, 2006,
External links
''Herders Conversations-Lexikon''
page 517, volume 1
''Neues deutsches Adels-Lexicon''
incl. citations, page 388, vol. 1
pages 574–576, signed entry by "Stricker"
''Brockhaus' Konversationslexikon''
page 899, vol. 2
''Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon 1905''
vol. 2
Portion of map
showing the various principalities of Nassau up to 1800
Aschaffenburg on French map
dated 1681
Carl Ludwig Caesar von Bethmann
and his descendants
ABN AMRO Private Banking webpage
showing timeline of Bethmann bank up to and past its merger into ABN AMRO
''Die Bank, die Goethes Reisen finanzierte''
by Claudia Wanner, article in Handelsblatt
The ''Handelsblatt'' (literally "commerce paper" in English) is a German-language business newspaper published in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Du ...
, first published 27 January 2005
Photographs of Bethmann park
and Chinese gardens therein
{{Authority control
Businesspeople from Frankfurt
German bankers
Bethmann finance family
History of banking
History of Frankfurt